Around January 1, 1846

In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...

When one moves from Brooklyn, New York to Norfolk, Virginia during the mid-nineteenth century, culture shock is to be expected. Clement D. Newman experienced this effect when he made this relocation in 1845. Newman recounts the social life of his new town to his father in a letter dated January 1, 1846. Though Newman surely liked the town of Norfolk, he admitted that the manners and customs are...

James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow
published the first issue of The
Commercial Review of the South and the West later to be known as DeBow’s Review in January 1846. The first issue of DeBow’s Review set the tone for the journal’s future, touching upon
the subjects of westward expansion, the connection...

In December of 1845, Reverend T.M. Wilkes wrote a letter to Reverend Iveson Lewis Brookes proposing that funds be raised to secure a new Baptist missionary to preach in Jones County, Georgia. Brookes was asked to continue paying 100 to sustain the preaching activities at his Jasper County plantation and to give an additional 100 to secure the second missionary. Wilkes, also a reverend, assured Brookes...

An article in the Richmond Whig calling for coal pit hands' who would work for the coming year was published on January 13. The Midlothian Coal Mining Co. was seeking able-bodied, healthy, well-disposed Negro men' who would work in their coal mines, and the company would pay the masters who hired these men out as well as giving the slaves an opportunity to earn their own money....

On January 18th, 1846, the ladies of Edgecombe county held a ceremony to honor the volunteers of the Mexican-American War. Ever since the blood of American soldiers had been shed in Texas, the call of patriotism compelled many Americans towards war. In Edgecombe, patriotic banners and speeches had been prepared for the men who would soon be off for Mexico. Present at the ceremony was a renowned...

On January 18, 1846, Ellis Gray Loring wrote a letter to female abolitionist Caroline Weston, pertaining to a slave boy, Martin. Ellis Gray Loring was born on April 14, 1803. After passing the Bar, Loring became a lawyer for the poor and those oppressed of their rights. In January of 1832, Loring was part of the founding of the New England Anti-­-Slavery Society in the African Baptist church in...

In early 1846, the Bank of Tennessee- which was located in the state capital of Nashville- had run into great debts and was facing liquidation, which would be disastrous for many of the Tennesseans it served. State senator Martin gave an impassioned speech against this bill for liquidation being debated in the Senate, and this speech was reported in the Nashville Union late in January. Martin...

In 1846, the United States of America was on the precipice of vast change in the way the citizens of the country transported themselves throughout the country. In the west, gold was being discovered in California, ushering in a mass population rush towards the west coast and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the east, much of the routes between cities were still interconnected by dated means of...

On March 1, 1846, C.S. Palmore, an attorney in Fayette County, Tennessee, wrote a letter to one of his colleagues. Attorney Edward Brown received the letter from Palmore in Ballsville, Virginia. Palmore boasted the supremacy of the state of Tennessee to the state of Virginia. I will say nothing about the fertility of our soil and other advantages afforded here to the young and enterprising, Palmore...